Interviews with Artists

1966-2012

Michael Peppiatt

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A renowned curator and respected insider of the international art scene since the mid-1960s, Michael Peppiatt has spent his professional life with many of the greatest artists of the 20th century. His close friendships and frequent studio visits with Dubuffet, Sonia Delaunay, Francis Bacon, Henry Moore, Balthus, Oldenburg, Brassaï, and Cartier-Bresson, among many others, have produced an incredible archive of interviews, from formal question-and-answer sessions to off-the-cuff conversations. These interviews combine to give a unique perspective on art from World War II to the present day.

Peppiatt has selected forty-five of the most noteworthy and fascinating of his conversations with artists, from the world-famous to the under-recognized. The author approaches his subjects with a characteristic mix of passion, insight, and humor in a book that is consistently entertaining and informative, as the artists open up in unexpected ways about their work and their lives.

Michael Peppiatt is a well-known writer and curator, who began his career as an art critic in London and Paris in the 1960s. He is the author of Alberto Giacometti in Postwar Paris, Francis Bacon in the 1950s, Francis Bacon: Studies for a Portrait, and In Giacometti's Studio (all Yale).

“…many of the conversations published here have a spark and intimacy that allow unexpected insights into the lives and work of some of the 20th century’s greatest artists.”—Apollo (Off the Shelf)

“The art of the critic-interviewer is, like that of the psychoanalyst, to draw poignant attention to what it is that the interviewee cannot express. The limitations imposed on Peppiatt are those of language itself, and they serve him well, causing him to nudge each of his subjects to the point where words fail them, to where the picture, the sculpture, the building or the photograph becomes the only means of expression.”—Talitha Stevenson, The Observer

“This fine collection of interviews from almost five decades moves from the figurative painters of London – notably Bacon and Auberch – to artistic Paris, including the photographers Brassai and Cartier-Bresson. Some interviewees are little known to the British public, some world-famous, but the focus is always on the individual, as a good interview ought to be.”—Martin Gayford, RA Magazine

"[A] fascinating collection…"—John Banville, Irish Times

"The 40 interviews here are by turns chatty, revealing, formal, informal; all retain a vivid sense of a social encounter. Although this book is perfect for dipping into at leisure and at random, taken together, Peppiatt's accounts provide a gripping overview of an epoch."—Jackie Wullschlager, Financial Times

"As a friend of many of those he interviewed, Peppiatt has been in a privileged position to gauge the trends of the last half century, and his passion for these artists, as much as for their art, is self-evident… The book has the feel of a collected biography, sufficiently steered by the masterful interviewer to give shape to the raw honesty it reveals… Simply conceived, but pleasurable to pick up, Interviews with Artists is a lot more than an aging critic's memoirs."—Daisy Dunn, telegraph.co.uk

"This is a wonderful collection of interviews… perfect for both practicing artists looking for inspiration or for those who are intrigued by the creative process."—ART Magazine

"Warm and illuminating to dip into but definitely aimed at those serious about contemporary art."—Nancy Durrant, The Times

ISBN: 9780300176629
Publication Date: August 21, 2012

434 pages, 6 1/4 x 9 1/4
45 b/w illus.

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